Stand for paint pails, tools or the like



- Oct. 22, 1963 J. T. KNIGHT STAND FOR- PAINT PAILS, TOOLS OR THE LIKE Filed A ril 21, 1961 United States Patent C) 3,107,636 STAND FQR PAlNT PAILS, TGOLS OR THE LEE .lames '1. Knight, 137 Reade St., Englewood, NJ. Filed Apr. 21, 1961, Ser. No. 104,587 1 Claim. ((11. 108-102) The present invention relates to a stand for paint pails, tools or the like, and in particular to such stand which is attachable to a table, a wall or the like for use by painters, decorators, electrical workers and others for the support of pails or buckets of paint as well as all kinds of tools required during the work in the respective trades.

I have disclosed in my US. Patent No. 2,969,949, dated January 31, 1961, a stand for a pail and a paste brush which substantially comprises a U-shaped bracket having a base portion and two leg portions. A latch bar is there disposed at the open end of the bracket and is pivotally mounted to open and close, respectively, the open end of the U-shaped bracket. A screw bolt is threadedly inserted through the base portion of the U-shaped bracket, thus permitting the clamping of the bracket to the leg portions. Furthermore, a supporting bar is also provided which extends laterally integrally from one of the leg portions of the U-shaped bracket, which supporting bar carries a tray in substantially horizontal position. A supporting arm extends angularly downwardly and integrally from the supporting bar from a point laterally spaced apart from the bracket to a point substantially vertically below the bracket and also for a length to maintain the supporting bar in substantially horizontal position. The lower end of the supporting arm engages loosely the leg member.

While it has been found that in certain situations the stand of said prior patent serves the purpose properly, in other situations, it has been found that it lacks to a certain extent.

It is, therefore, one object of the present invention to provide a stand for paint pails, tools or the like, which avoids the drawbacks of the structure of said prior patent.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a stand for paint pails, tools or the like which permits not only additional adjustment in order to bring about a substantially horizontal position of the tray, but which by means of a slight modification lends itself to simple mounting of the tray on a vertical Wall.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a stand for paint pails, tools or the like which includes a tray which is adjustable as to its length, in order to accommodate longer or shorter tools used in a particular work.

With these and other objects in view, which will become apparent in the following detailed description, the present invention will be clearly understood in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective top view of the stand designed in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a front elevation thereof;

FIG. 3 is a bottom plan view thereof;

FIG. 4 is a top perspective view of a second embodiment of a tray to be supported by the stand, which tray is expausible; and

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary elevation of the support for the stand showing a second embodiment of securing the stand.

Referring now to the drawing, the stand for paint pails, tools or the like comprises a U-shaped bracket member 1, the base portion of which has an inner thread 2 which receives a bolt 3 carrying an outer thread 4, so that upon turning the bolt 3 by means of a wing nut 5 or the like, secured to the end of the bolt 3, the latter may be moved into the open space of the U-shaped bracket member 1 and brought into engagement with the outer face of a leg 6 of a table or the like. One end of the leg portion of the U- shaped bracket member 1 extends integrally and laterally to form a supporting bar 7 which is twisted for an angle of about intermediate its ends and which forms short of its free end a cross-bar 8.

A tray 9 is pivotally secured at the crossing point between the supporting bar 7 and the cross-bar 8, preferably by means of a screw bolt 19, which extends through the tray 9, and thus permits a lateral swinging movement of the tray 9 relative to the supporting bar 7. The tray 9, which is shown in FIG. 1 of the drawing, in a first embodiment, as a tray to receive a paint pail and a brush, defines two distinct sections. The first section has an up wardly extending flange portion of circular configuration and, preferably, of a diameter complementary to the conventional size of a paint can or pail to be received upon the section 11 of the tray 9 and the paint can or pail being retained in position by the upwardly extending flange portion. The second section 12 of the tray 9 has a rectangular flange portion and two sides of the rectangular flange portion approach tangentially the circular flange portion of the section 11.

In accordance with a second embodiment of the tray, shown in FIG. 4 of the drawing, the tray 9 is again supported on the supporting bar 7 and the cross-bar 8 and pivotally mounted on the screw bolt 10. The tray 9 comprises two rectangular portions 13 and 14 which are telescopically movable relative to each other by providing flanges on each of the tray portions 13 and 14 which slide along each other. In order to permit such relative sliding between the two tray portions 13 and 14, the tray portion 13 is equipped with a longitudinal slot 15 which thus permits longitudinal movement relative to the other tray portion 14, whereby the pivot or screw bolt 10 slides in the slot 15.

In order to permit an adjustment of the maximum length of the tray portions 13 and 14-, the tray portion 14 is equipped with a plurality of bores 16 disposed along a central line which coincides with the center line of the slot 15, so that the screw bolt 10 can be inserted in any one of the bores 16, the maximum possible length of the tray by adjustment of the portions 13 and 14 being determined by the length of the slot 15. The tray shown in FIG. 4 of the drawing is particularly designed to receive tools or the like.

In order to maintain the supporting bar 7 and, thereby, the tray 9 in substantially horizontal position, a supporting arm 17 projects downwardly, obliquely and integrally from the supporting bar 7 from a point spaced apart from the U-shaped bracket member 1. The lower end of the supporting arm is bent to a substantially horizontally disposed angular portion 18, the face of one arm of'which engages the same leg or the like to which the bracket 1 has been secured at a point spaced apart downwardly from the securing point of the bracket member 1. By such arrangement the tray 9 assumes a substantially horizontal position and is strongly and sufiiciently supported by the combined securing means of the bracket member 1 and the supporting arm 17.

While a similar arrangement has been disclosed in my previous US. Patent No. 2,969,949, referred to above, it has been found that in many instances an exact horizontal position is not achieved, and for this reason, in accordance with the present invention, additional adjustment means are provided on the supporting arm to arrive at an exact horizontal position of the tray 9. This adjustment means comprises a screw bolt 19 which finds its counter-thread in a threaded bore 21 provided in the angular portion 18 of the supporting arm 17. Thus upon turning the a and brings about such a lifting of the tray 9 that a very exact horizontal position may be obtained, which is particularly essential if a completely full pail containing paint is set on the tray 9, to avoid spilling over of the paint. The free end of the angular portion 18 is bent over for 90 to assume a further angular end portion 21 which is likewise equipped with a bore 22 for a purpose to be described later.

In the same manner as disclosed in my previous US. Patent No. 2,969,949, set forth above, a latch bar 23 is turnably mounted upon a pivot 18 pivotally secured to the supporting bar 7 and adapted to close up the open end of the U-shaped bracket member 1 in its operative position and may be turned upon its pivot 24 into an upward position, thereby, permitting the moving of the U-shaped bracket member to encircle the leg 6, which is then disposed within the U-shaped bracket member 1. Upon lowering the latch bar 23, the leg 6 is retained in the bracket member 1, so that upon tightening the screw bolt 3 into engagement of its end face with the leg 6, the bracket member 1 is clamped to the leg 6. The screw bolt 3 is removable from the base of the U-shaped bracket member 1 and can be replaced by a plane screw bolt as will be set forth below.

As clearly shown in FIG. of the drawing, the U- shaped bracket member 1 and the supporting arm 17 can be also used for securing the stand to a vertical wall. In order to bring about such arrangement, it is merely necessary to remove the threaded bolt 3 from the base of the U-shaped bracket and insert into the bore 2 a plane screw 25, as clearly indicated in FIG. 5 of the drawing. Furthermore, a second screw bolt 26 is inserted into the bore 22 of the angular end portion 21 of the supporting arm 17 so that upon tightening the screws 25 and 26 on the vertical Wall 27, an easy securing of the tray 9 in substantially vertical position may be obtained.

While I have disclosed several embodiments of the present invention, it is to be understood that these embodiments are given by example only and not in a limiting sense, the scope of the present invention being determined by the objects and the claim.

I claim:

A stand for paint pails, tools, or the like comprising a U-shaped bracket having a base portion and two leg portions,

a latch bar pivotally mounted at the open end of said U-shaped bracket to open and close, respectively, the open end of said U-shaped bracket,

a screw bolt threadedly and removably inserted through said base portion of said U-shaped bracket in order to selectively clamp said U-shaped bracket to a leg member and secure said U-shaped bracket to a wall, respectively, 7

a supporting bar extending laterally from one of said leg portions of said U-shaped bracket,

a tray pivotally secured to said supporting bar,

a supporting arm extending angularly downwardly from and integrally with said supporting bar from a point laterally spaced apart from said bracket to a point substantially vertically below said bracket,

said tray comprising two portions telescoping into each other,

each of said portions having a base,

one of said bases having a longitudinal slot parallel to the longitudinal axis of the portion of said supporting bar disposed below the lower of said bases,

the upper of said bases having a plurality of bores spaced apart along an imaginary line extending parallel to and vertically above said slot, and

a bolt extending through each of said bores into said portion of said supporting bar disposed below the lower of said bases, thereby permitting relative movement between said bases.

References fitted in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,087,603 Nellis Feb. 17, 1914 1,358,322 McIntosh Nov. 9, 1920 2,155,097 Mendle Apr. 18, 1939 2,903,311 Earhart Sept. 8, 1959 2,959,949 Knight Jan. 31, 1961 

